 Cordelia Salter of cordelia.net Books interviews K. E. Ngii the author of "The Happiness Grail: The Seven Women of Rome" |
| CS: What is The Happiness Grail all about? |
| Ngii: It's about the search for spirituality,
meaning, and happiness. |
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| CS: What are some of the themes or questions? |
| Ngii: Enduring love: can love transcend illness, logic, time, and space? How do we increase our capacity to deal with pain and be happy? How can we live happy lives? |
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| CS: Where is the Happiness Grail set? |
| Ngii: It opens in London and ends in London; most of it takes place in Rome. The characters talk about places they have enjoyed incredible sex- on the slopes of Mt Vesuvius, Nordfjord in Norway. There is a trip to Zanzibar and New York. |
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| CS: Is there any truth in the rumour that the Happiness Grail is not all fiction? |
| Ngii: Well, most of the story line is based on real events. |
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| CS: The sex, the alcohol, and drugs? |
| Ngii: The divorces, menopause, miscarriage, death, depression, pain. |
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| CS: Very personal? |
| Ngii: A universal human story. It explores
the pain my relatives, friends and I have dealt with, are dealing
with. The Happiness Grail held my hand through dark periods of my
life. Still holds my hand, now and then. Yes, it's very personal. |
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| CS: Tell us a bit about the story. |
| Ngii: Happiness Grail is a love story - a
love triangle - involving the British Prime, Elizabeth Churchill,
a French writer and an English artist. In Rome, Elizabeth joins a
book club- a life club. The other members of the book club are an
Indian artist, a wealthy American socialite, a Norwegian medical student,
a Japanese musician, a French sculptor, a menopausal Italian, out
of work and out of luck with men. The women meet in the Café Rica
owned by the charming Ricardo Del Caro. Jean Paul Du Monde - JP, a
French doctor is the therapist who supports the women. |
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| CS: I hear there is some story about JP? |
| Ngii: I have these very brilliant gay friends. JP captures their goodness and brilliance. |
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| CS: Who is your favourite character? |
| Ngii: If I were pushed, Irena Niro the Italian
is my favourite. |
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| CS: Why? |
| Ngii: Irena is the weakest character when the story opens- twice divorced, menopausal, overweight; she has not had sex for a decade. During the story, she loses her job, breaks up with her boyfriend, goes to court for child custody. Irena lives an unhappy life but by the end of the story, she has achieved and changed more than the other women. Changes a lot. |
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| CS: Why should anyone read Happiness Grail? |
| Ngii: It is a story of redemption. You are
entertained and invited to laugh at yourself and the world; it has
funny discussions on sex, art, literature, dating. It has inspirational
quotes from existential philosophy and positive psychology. Above
all, it is a human story, about dealing and overcoming problems. It
is story of learning, growing and changing your life and learning
how to make yourself happy in spite of pain. |
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| CS: In a nutshell, what's the take home message of The Happiness Grail? |
| Ngii: All of us can increase our capacity to be happy even when life keeps throwing us curve balls. We can find and keep enduring love, in spite of illness, distance, time, reason. We too, can redeem ourselves no matter how far we have fallen. |
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| CS: Quote some of the characters. |
| Ngii: "She married me and wept. I just want to be happy like Jane Smith. I must have loved Elizabeth before I was born." |
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| CS: What is your favourite set piece? |
| Ngii: Oh, I like the scene when Nina is getting married. It is light and funny; her wedding vows are strange. Nina wears flowers for a wedding gown. Elizabeth wears only green lingerie and stilettos. Attending the ceremony is Nina's former boyfriend who is nicknamed SPP- the serial pussy pleaser. |
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| CS: The funniest part? |
| Ngii: When Irena describes how she nearly died giving her ex- husband a blowjob. |
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| CS: Love making scene? |
| Ngii: When Nina and her husband have their honeymoon in Elizabeth's room. |
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| CS: Friendship? |
| Ngii: When women look after Elizabeth who is not deserving of their friendship. |
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| CS: The most painful scene? |
| Ngii: Maxine's pain. |
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| CS: Inspirational? |
| Ngii: When JP- the therapist tells Elizabeth how he came back after screwing his life. |
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| CS: Interesting, what else? |
| Ngii: It has the ideal dream husband and lover- Montaigne; clever beautiful gifted women; weird funny sexual confessions; parties/galas and art exhibitions. |
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| CS: Why is Montaigne the ideal husband and lover? |
| Ngii: He is love in action: he has loved Elizabeth for a long time; the seven years they have been apart have not dented his love. Not only is he romantic- takes her to Paris for her birthday, he is also practical- he is cross between a Prince and a Plumber. He is a prince charming- he comes to her rescue. Who can beat that? |
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| CS: Yes, indeed, I can see a wide resonance with
many women. What next after publication? Movie? TV? |
| Ngii: Now you are asking me to dream. I know I want to put the story out there for many people. |
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| CS: We are allowed to dream - dreaming is free.
Come, dream on, dream big. Suppose it happened, who would you like
to play the role of the British Prime Minister? |
| Ngii: Charlize Theron or Nicole Kidman or Rachel Weisz or Gwyneth Paltrow would make a great Prime Minister Elizabeth Churchill. |
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| CS: It sounds like a very challenging role. Why did you use such a powerful woman? The Prime Minister? |
| Ngii: I think, we tend to think that bad things do not happen to the beautiful, the rich, and the famous. By using such a powerful beautiful rich famous woman, I wanted to show that life happens to all of us. Death, fate, loss. |
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| CS: What market do you think The Happiness Grail would appeal to? |
| Ngii: The novel blends colourful titbits about
women issues `a la sex and the city, Friends, Diary of Bridget Jones
and philosophy and positive psychology of how to live a meaningful
and happy life. I see the novel capturing the women's market of -
chick lit, self-help, and sex and dating issues of the older woman.
And women who like to read philosophy and psychology related novels. |
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| CS: Which are some of the books that have influenced
you? |
| Ngii: There are books which have made me cry
and think because of their beauty, perfection and insight to the human
nature. Books like The English Patient, Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina,
The Painted Veil, Fountainhead, Steppenwolf, The Tale of Two Cities,
No Longer At Ease, Birdsong, Veronica Decides to Die . I have read
some stuff from Nietzsche, Hermann Hess, Irving Yalom, Albert Camus,
Jean Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, which have helped me cope with
my pain. |
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| CS: I hear you have become sort of a lay therapist? |
| Ngii: I share what I have learnt and experienced
with other people in similar situations. I offer them my support -
even in basic things like arranging for a babysitter when they need
to go to court or being there for them when they are in pain. I listen.
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| CS: So have you learnt how to be happy? |
| Ngii: I have learnt how to increase my happiness level; I have learnt that my happiness level is determined by my capacity to deal with pain. |
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| CS: Capacity to deal with pain? |
| Ngii: We know that pain is part of life; we know that life throws us many curve balls; we know that we cannot escape from existential issues. Therefore, our only option is to learn to deal with it. If pain will happen no matter what, we have to increase our capacity to deal with it if we want to be happy. We have to learn how to be happy in spite of pain. |
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| CS: The Happiness Grail tells us how to be happy in spite of pain? |
| Ngii: It opens an interesting discussion on the happiness grail. |
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| CS: Well, I can't wait! Thank you. |
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| If you are a publisher and are interested in K E
Ngii's book please get in touch. |
